Class of 1959

Class Correspondent

David Ball writes, “The Trump administration wants to cut funding for the Fulbright fellowship for study abroad almost in half. Receiving a Fulbright changed my life. Thanks to it, I lived in France for 10 years, and became a professor of French language and literature at Smith College. Since retiring from Smith in 2002, I’ve been a full-time literary translator, reviewer and writer. My annotated translation of Jean Guéhenno’s ‘Diary of the Dark Years, 1940- 44’ won a nice, fat prize a couple of years ago. My next book, Léon Werth’s ‘Déposition’ — another occupation diary — will be published soon by Oxford University Press. My wife and I live mostly in Northampton, Massachusetts, with three months in Paris, her hometown, and a month in San Francisco to see sons, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. We plan to keep living this way as long as we can. Want to do one very small useful thing? Write aroujou@fulbright-france.org, and say you want to sign the petition against the Fulbright cut.” Marilyn Becker continues to serve the community through Life Cycle Outreach, which provides clergy for events. She and her husband, Stan, celebrated their 57th anniversary in May. Their grandchildren enjoy boating and fishing at their summer home in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Becky Cohen Long, P’85, writes, “My single 48-year-old daughter has adopted a tiny baby boy. Being a grandmother again has given me a new lease on life. This one makes seven.” Next year, Gloria Feman Orenstein will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus of the College Art Association in Los Angeles. Having retired as professor of comparative literature and gender studies at the University of Southern California, Gloria continues to write about female artists in the Surrealist movement and the contemporary feminist art movement in the U.S. Alicia Ostriker was elected chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She has published her 16th collection of poems, “Waiting for the Light,” and returned to her roots by becoming a permanent resident of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. After 54 years of trying cases in private practice, Albert Zabin moved to Greater Boston Legal Services, where he tries cases and mentors other lawyers. He and his wife, Judy Liskov Zabin ’61, are in good health. Their three children each have three children. One son heads the homicide unit of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, in Boston. Their daughter is a professor of American history at Carleton College. Their other son is a U.S. State Department diplomat who has been posted to Southeast Asia and East Africa. Albert writes, “I’m still (politically) where I was at Brandeis. Only the world seems to have moved to the right.”